McLaren would try to persuade ace driver Lewis Hamilton to sign a new deal with the help of adding a two million pound sweetener in the current deal offered to him, according to a British newspaper.
The improved and, in all likelihood, final offer from McLaren averages out at 12 million pounds a season over three years, according to the Daily Mail.
It is still three million pounds down on his current deal, which expires at the end of the campaign and which Mercedes have already offered to match, the paper said.
But Woking-based McLaren is confident that despite the wage cut, Hamilton will re-sign as early as this week, as the Brit has been impressed with the speed of his car this season and its development, the paper added.
Yet Hamilton is very tempted by the prospect of working under Ross Brawn at Mercedes, the man who helped guide Michael Schumacher to seven world titles, and has received assurances the German team will get funds to become front-runners, the paper further said.
Hamilton's managers, Simon Fuller's XIX Entertainment, insist their client will be the one to decide if he replaces Schumacher, but there is a big discrepancy in the value McLaren place on Hamilton's image rights and the figure XIX believe they could generate should he move, the paper concluded.
